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| Sounds great! But...its "what" not "who." |
Last week I sped down the interstate with a new friend, unfamiliar with my upbringing, hobbies, interests and thoughts. She turned in the passenger seat and stared at me somewhat perplexed then looked forward over the dash. I was curious.
"What?" I asked, half-smiling.
"Well...I was just wondering what culture you identify with, exactly..." she replied honestly and bluntly. A girl after my own heart who said aloud what she actually thought.
"Hello. I like you." I laughed back.
"No, really. You don't act Asian and you aren't an Islander, necessarily, and you don't talk Black and you're not White. What's up with you?"
"Whoa, girl! You better be glad we're alone in this car!" I joked with her. "But, you're on to something there."
Who we are is not actually a color, accent, or culture either. And thank goodness for that, because otherwise it would be hard for unidentified objects like me to "belong."
Do you remember being a teen and deciding who you were with mixed emotions and activities? I sat in the airport waiting for my flight and almost got up to walk away as thirty highschoolers circled and landed like a flock of noisy birds, all around me, filling every seat with stuff and the air with incessant chatter. I groaned and smiled to myself listening to them proclaim their futures to one another. Behind me a boy chirped, "I'll be a restaurant owner, or a landscape artist, unless I'm a botanist, conductor, or a zookeeper. I have so many options, with my skills." The girl closest to me went on and on with her hopeful visions, while her friends overflowed with agreeing accolades, "I will definitely be a doctor. My ACT scores were off the charts and I want to wear a stethoscope." Another crowd off to themselves with obviously modified uniforms piled themselves together and giggled about guys: all completely the same, but so different from the rest as they definitely knew they were marked by singular maturity. I put my sunglasses on, to hide my laughing eyes.
I know what I admire and what inspires. I even know what I want. I definitely know what I love and then what I like. But that is not "who" I am. I know my favorites and what I need to be healthy. I know what looks good on me and I’m learning when to say “no.” And thankfully, I am definitely not what I can do or accomplish. I know I don't have to be like others or have what others have. However, these facts about me are not me, either. Who are you?
But, before you get concerned about my sanity, I did find “identity” for myself. It sounds silly, perhaps...But until you have it, you'll look for it without knowing it is what's missing. You won't be happy and people will step around you with a confused look on their face until you realize the truth.
Personally and frankly, I discovered that I am actually no one—and it is so nice. I am supposed to be completely swallowed up in Someone else. It is just how I was created to be. I have been completed, by focusing on Christ. Now I can just be me without knowing or caring what it looks like to people—or who approves or disapproves. When you know this, “you” fades away into an extremely important and safe “nobody”. It is so splendid to be an onlooker without personal conflict, viewing the lives of people around me as they are, and not as who I am. Think about it.
Because finally, this is who I am…free. Take time to read this and believe it: because it is who you can be, too! The more you know God, the more you know you who have been made in the image of God.
• I am complete in Him Who is the Head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10).
• I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).
• I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
• I am far from oppression, and fear does not come near me (Isaiah 54:14).
• I am born of God, and the evil one does not touch me (1 John 5:18).
• I am holy and without blame before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:16).
• I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).
• I have the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
• I have the Greater One living in me; greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
• I have received the gift of righteousness and reign as a king in life by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).
• I have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of my understanding being enlightened (Ephesians 1:17,18).
• I have received the power of the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, to cast out demons, to speak with new tongues. I have power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm me (Mark 16:17,18; Luke 10:17,19).
• I have put off the old man and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of Him Who created me (Colossians 3:9,10).
• I have given, and it is given to me; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and
• I have no lack for my God supplies all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
• I can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one with my shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16).
• I can do all things through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13).
• I show forth the praises of God Who has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).
• I am God’s child⎯for I am born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23).
• I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ unto good works (Ephesians 2:10).
• I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
• I am a spirit being⎯alive to God (Romans 6:11;1 Thessalonians 5:23).
• I am a believer, and the light of the Gospel shines in my mind (2 Corinthians 4:4).
• I am a doer of the Word and blessed in my actions (James 1:22, 25).
• I am a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17).
• I am more than a conqueror through Him Who loves me (Romans 8:37).
• I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11).
• I am a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:3,4).
• I am an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).
• I am part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people (1 Peter 2:9).
• I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• I am the temple of the Holy Spirit; I am not my own (1 Corinthians 6:19).
• I am the head and not the tail; I am above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13).
• I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
• I am His elect, full of mercy, kindness, humility, and longsuffering (Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12).
• I am forgiven of all my sins and washed in the Blood (Ephesians 1:7).
• I am delivered from the power of darkness and translated into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13).
• I am redeemed from the curse of sin, sickness, and poverty (Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Galatians 3:13).
• I am firmly rooted, built up, established in my faith and overflowing with gratitude (Colossians 2:7).
• I am called of God to be the voice of His praise (Psalm 66:8; 2 Timothy 1:9).
• I am healed by the stripes of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).
• I am raised up with Christ and seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12;).
• I am greatly loved by God (Romans 1:7; Ephesians 2:4; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4).
• I am strengthened with all might according to His glorious power (Colossians 1:11).
• I am submitted to God, and the devil flees from me because I resist him in the Name of Jesus (James 4:7).
• I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward (Philippians 3:14).
• For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
• It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).
(Copyright © 2008 Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc.)
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